An Evening Stroll Extra: Tower Under Siege
by Still Waters
Summary: An alarm sounds in the early morning hours. The Tower is surrounded. So sorry. Didn't mean for it to show up twice. I think I've got if fixed now.


_This was just a random little idea I had. I hope you like._

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An Evening Stroll Extra: Tower Under Siege

Maria groaned at the sound of the Tower alarm. She pushed herself off of Steve as the calm voice of JARVIS requested all residents to report to common area immediately. Straightening her pajamas, she grabbed her phone and weapon as her fiance pulled on a shirt and grabbed up his shield.

Together, they raced up the stairs to the shared floor where Thor stood, Moljinor clutched in one hand, his other arm around Jane. Her other hand clutched Darcys and all three looked concerned.

"Do you know what's going on?" the young intern asked the new arrivals. As both shook their heads, Natasha and Clint burst into the room, their faces also questioning. His quiver was on his back, bow in hand. Bruce was next, still tying the belt on his robe. Tony and Pepper were close behind him, everyone clearly confused.

"What have you done now, Stark?" Maria asked.

"Absolutely nothing!" the billionaire protested. "I was in bed, sound asleep."

"Oddly enough, he was," Pepper added.

Steve stepped forward, leadership role firmly in place. "Is everyone here?" he asked.

"Phil is on base, Jen and the kids are at the apartment," Maria told him, turning to Bruce. "What about Betty? She was here at dinner time."

He nodded. "She was, but she had to catch a flight for a conference in Paris. She headed to the airport right after the meal."

"What about the staff?" Steve questioned, looking to the small group gathered on the other side of the room from the team.

Maxwell, the human most responsible for the smooth operation of the facility, examined his group, then turned to his wife with a frown.

"Daisy?" he asked.

"She had the night off," Claire assured him. "She was planning to spend it with her sister who is in from Arizona."

He nodded to Steve. "All present or accounted for, sir," he told him.

"Good." The Captain's attention turned towards the ceiling. "What's this all about, JARVIS?"

"My apolohgies for interrupting your sleep. Or other activities," the AI told them.

"Other activities?" Stark commented, looking around with a suggestive leer. "Who was involved in other activities?"

Steve's bright blush brought several knowing grins from the assembled group, in spite of the uncertainty of the situation.

Bruce finally had pity on him. "I was." When the others turned their attention to him, he continued. "I was reading. That counts as an 'other activity.' doesn't it?"

Relieved to no longer be the center of attention, Rogers addressed the system again. "It's all right, JARVIS. I'm sure you had good reason to assemble us."

"I have reason to believe the facility may have been invaded by members of some unknown alien species, sir, and currently have the tower on lock down as I run a complete scan of the premises for any signs of the invaders."

"What sort of invaders?" Tony asked.

"I'm not entirely certain, sir, as my systems are currently limited due to the extensive system upgrades you felt must be launched simultaneously."

"So, you're blaming me for this?" the billionaire querried.

"Yes, Sir."

Natasha cleared her throat, neatly twirling a sharp knife before it disappeared into her robe. "Aliens?"

A video feed appeared in the air in front of them. "In the last few minutes, we have become the center of a rather large gathering. They seem to primarily be teens and young adults."

The group studied the video. "Odd, but what about that indicates an invasion?" Clint asked.

"I believe they may have gotten word of the attack and came to offer their assistance. My audio is picking up comments about 'catching them' and certain odd designations."

"Such as?" Darcy prompted.

"Charizard. Snorlax. Meowth. Pikachu."

The young intern suddenly dropped her bag and dashed from the room. Thor watched, a look of consternation on his face.

"These monsters must be fierce to inspire such fear in the heart of our Lady Darcy. Such a show of fear is not in her character."

Steve turned to Maria. "Do these names sound familiar to you? Are these creatures that SHIELD is aware of?"

Her brow was furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure. They sound familiar..."

Just then, Darcy rejoined them, using the sleeve of her robe to wipe moisture from her face.

"Everything okay?" Jane asked.

"Everything's fine," she assured them. "Just almost peed my pants." Sitting down in the floor, she started digging through the purse she had brought up with her.

"JARVIS, search for Pokemon Go," she told him, finally pulling out her phone.

"Ah," Maria said. "That's where I've heard that."

Darcy looked up in surprise. "You play?"

The Deputy Director shook her head. "No, but the name has come up during a few disciplinary meetings in recent days. HR has even sent out a memo about it not being an appropriate use of time while on duty."

"What is this 'Pokemon' and where is he going?" Thor probed.

"A game," JARVIS explained with something that sounded almost like a sigh. "The lockdown is cancelled. All is clear. You may all return to your homes." Pepper looked to the staff and nodded, dismissing them with a smile.

Darcy started tapping at her screen as the others gathered around. "You download this app on your mobile device, then you use it to hunt for and capture these virtual creatures in the real world. Certain historical sites or tourist attractions tend to be hotspots for finding them. It's actully getting a lot of the gamers off their butts and moving around out in the real world."

"This game is a pretty big thing?" Tony asked her, eyeing the video of the group outside.

"Oh, yeah," the young woman assured him. "It's probably one of the biggest ever. Bigger than Angry Birds even."

"Show me, JARVIS," Stark commanded.

"Don't you want to return to bed, sir?"

"Please tell me you're not getting started on this," Pepper asked him.

He waved his hand in an annoyed way and pulled up a virtual keyboard. "No. As many real monsters as we've faced, there's just not a whole lot of appeal to chasing virtual ones. Just want to take a look at it. You can do this on any smart device, right?"

Darcy nodded.

"I need to be sure that anyone using a Stark device gets a superior experience to any of those other company products." He motioned Darcy to his side, throwing questions at her as he worked the display in front of him, studying the specifics and demos of the game.

"Well, guess I'll head back to bed," Pepper commented. "To sleep. Since there are clearly not going to be any other activities in my night."

"K. Night," Tony replied, caught up in his work.

She shook her head and turned to go. After a couple of steps, she turned back. "Tony?" He looked up at her. "Maybe while you're hacking into the system, you could really clear these things from the tower so we don't have all these people hanging around."

"Not yet," Darcy protested. "Let me see what's here first," she said, jumping to her feet.

"Great. You can show me how it works," Tony replied, moving to look over her shoulder. He glanced over at Pepper. "Then I'll take care of everything and come to bed. Shouldn't be too long."

"Right," she commented, rolling her eyes. Her smile, though, was indulgent as she said her goodnights to the others and headed back to the penthouse.

"I think we'll be heading back to bed, too," Jane told the others, covering a yawn. "I've got an early conference call with Dr. Hilliard about some similar reasearch we've been working on."

"And I've got research reports calling my name," Bruce said, joining them at the elevators.

Clint wrapped his arms around Natasha. "What about you? Ready to go back to bed?"

She relaxed into him with a smile. "Problem is...now that I'm awake, I'm not really ready to go back to sleep yet," she told him.

"We don't have to go to sleep. There's always those 'other activities,'" he reminded her.

"There are, indeed," she purred. "What about you two?" she asked, turning to Steve and Maria.

"We'll probably get up to some of those other activities, too," she replied.

Steve looked at her, trying not to blush.

"You know...reading..."

"Not really something you do together," Nat said, shaking her head.

"Drawing."

"Which you couldn't do if your life depended on it," Clint reminded her.

"Cooking."

"At this hour?"

"Guess we'll just have to make love, then," Steve finally contributed.

Clint and Natasha looked at him for a moment, stunned at the openness of the normally very private super soldier.

"I suppose, if we must," Maria replied with a grin.

"Yes, we must," Steve answered, pulling her into the elevator.

She looked over her shoulder at the other couple and shrugeed. "He says we must."

Nat laughed as she pushed the 'Down' button for them. "Then by all means..."

As the door closed and the car began to drop, she wrapped her arms around him and stretched up to kiss him soundly.

"I like the way you think, Rogers."

"Just the way I think?"

Her brow furrowed as she considered for a few moments. "It seems like there are some other things you do that I really like, too, but I can't quite remember what."

"I guess I'll just have to remind you," he whispered in her ear as the doors slid open on their floor and he swept her off her feet."

"I guess you will," she replied. "I guess you will."

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 _Thanks so much for reading. I do appreciate your time. I know it's a bit of a stretch. JARVIS would have known, as would anyone else who had any contact with any news, but I found this idea amusing. I hope you did as well and would love to know what you thought. By the way, I know pretty much nothing about Pokémon, so I apologize for any errors on my part._


End file.
